Step 1: Storytelling with data

What do we mean by storytelling and why is it important?

Implementing effective data storytelling into a business report or case is paramount for transforming raw data into meaningful insights that drive decision-making. By weaving a narrative around the data, it becomes more relatable and engaging, ensuring that stakeholders can comprehend complex information and its implications with ease. The structure of effective data storytelling follows a clear and logical progression.

Telling a story with data engages the audience and helps them understand the impact of the numbers. You could frame the narrative around how increased student participation has led to improved graduation rates, weaving in personal stories or case studies to make the data more compelling and adding more weight to your business case.

Adding emotion to data storytelling connects the numbers to real-world outcomes. Showcasing how funding cuts negatively impact student support services, complete with testimonies from affected students, adds an emotional weight that makes the data more impactful and memorable.

Activity

Reflection

Most likely you have had a chance to view different people presenting reports throughout your career. Think back to key reports and presenters you have seen and think about the following questions.

• Which presentation do you remember most?
• What made it stand out?
• What type of structure did they use?
• How did they discuss the data and feedback that was gathered?

It’s important to reflect on others practice to help us compare and improve our own and others presentations and report.

Step 2: Developing an effective report

What structure should I use?

A typical structure may look similar to:

• Executive summary.
• Introduction and background information including the scope and intended outcome of the report.
• Findings/results.
• Recommendation and actions.

By structuring the report in this manner, it ensures that the information is not only accessible but also actionable, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions efficiently. We have highlighted below some key ideas surrounding writing a data based report to help give some guidance on key areas.

Executive summaries

Executive summaries should always be included at the beginning of reports to provide a concise and comprehensive overview of the key findings and insights. They serve as an essential tool for busy stakeholders who may not have the time to delve into the full report. Presenting the most critical information upfront in a short bullet pointed list, ensures that the audience can quickly grasp the report’s significance and make informed decisions without needing to sift through detailed data.

An effective executive summary should include several elements to help explain the data:

• Background Information: Establish the context by explaining why the data was collected, the objectives of the analysis, and the questions it aims to address.
• Key Findings: Highlight the most significant results and trends that emerged from the data, drawing attention to crucial insights.
• Implications: Discuss the implications of the findings, providing a clear understanding of how they impact the institution or relevant stakeholders.
• Recommendations or actions: Offer practical recommendations based on the data, guiding the audience on the next steps to take or changes to implement.

By structuring the executive summary in this manner, it provides a clear and actionable roadmap for the audience, bridging the gap between data analysis and practical application.

Lead with background, highlight outcome, suggested actions.

When writing reports and visualizing data, leading with background information helps establish context and provides the audience with a foundation to understand the subsequent findings. This background sets the stage by explaining why the data was collected and what questions it aims to answer. Whilst context is important, it needs to be concise and easy to explain to help frame information for the wider report.

Highlighting outcomes then focuses attention on the most significant results, drawing the audience’s eyes to the key insights and trends that emerged from the data. This approach ensures that the most important information does not get lost amid the details.

Ending with actions offers practical recommendations based on the data, guiding the audience on the next steps to take or changes to implement. Structuring reports and visualizations in this way not only makes the information more digestible but also bridges the gap between analysis and application, ensuring that data-driven decisions are both clear and actionable.

Visualising Data

Visualising data is crucial for effective storytelling. Clear labels are essential in ensuring each chart, graph, and table is easily understood by the audience.

It’s important when creating visualisations of data to think about the following elements:

• Axis and Labels: Is the visual element labelled appropriately. Adding labels can be useful to highlight key points and to help explain the visualisation. However, too many labels can cause visualisation data to be lost as elements look cluttered and difficult to comprehend.
• Accessibility: Think carefully when using colours or visualisations of data as it shouldn’t be assumed that all users will be able to see these elements.
• Highlighting key points visually: When creating graphs, it’s often useful to make the most relevant data stand out from wider data sets. This can be done by changing the look of the data. I.e. outlining it, dotted lines, making other data sets grey scale with one colour to highlight the key points.
• Provide a summary: Whenever a visualisation is created, it should always be accompanied by a summary of the data being presented. This helps focus people’s attention on key outputs and also supports accessibility in case people cannot see the visualisation effectively.

For example, when illustrating student participation rates in a graph, labeling the axes clearly with “Year” and “Participation Rate” helps the viewer immediately grasp what the data represents.

Summarizing content is another key aspect. When presenting trends over several years, a concise summary can highlight important shifts, such as an increase in graduation rates following the introduction of a new student support program. These summaries provide context to the raw numbers and make the data more relatable.

Explaining Data Simply

Using plain language to explain data ensures that it is accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical background. Avoiding jargon and technical terms is vital. For instance, instead of saying “statistically significant correlation,” you might use terms such as “a strong relationship can be found between”.

Laying Out Data

Laying out a report in an easy to read and structured format enables the audience to find the relevant information quickly and supports them with understanding the main points raised. The following points can really help with document layouts:

• Presenting data in a logical order that flows naturally is crucial for clarity.
• Grouping related information together to create a cohesive flow.
• Use headings and subheadings to structure the content, making it easy for the audience to follow.
• Use graphs and charts sparingly to highlight key data information clearly. Overloading documents with visuals can lead to cluttered reports and lead to less impact.
• Employing dynamic charts and graphs that update with user input can make the data more impactful. However, if this isn’t possible, then providing a breakdown by relevant areas can help with this.
• Visual hierarchy is another essential component. Highlight the most important data by giving it prominence on the page, such as placing it at the top or using larger fonts and vibrant colors. This draws the viewer’s attention to key insights immediately.
• Providing context and explanations alongside the data helps bridge the gap between raw numbers and their real-world implications. Use brief but informative captions to explain what the data shows and why it matters.
• Ensure accessibility by considering color contrast and text size; providing alternatives like downloadable reports or audio summaries can cater to diverse audience needs.

Formatting for Clarity and Impact

Formatting techniques such as bold text, italics, or different colors can be used to emphasise key points and make them stand out. For instance, when presenting data on funding demonstrations, you might use bold text to highlight the percentage decrease and its impact on student services.

Effective point summaries

Summarising key points effectively from a report involves distilling complex information into clear, concise statements that highlight the most important data insights. Begin by identifying the primary objectives of the report and the key metrics that support these goals.

• Use bullet points or brief paragraphs to emphasise significant trends, changes, or outcomes.
• Contextualise the data by explaining its implications and relevance to the audience.
• Ensure that each summary is backed by concrete examples or visual aids where appropriate.

This approach not only simplifies the information but also enhances comprehension and retention, making it easier for stakeholders to grasp and act upon the findings presented.

Accessibility of content

To ensure as many people as possible can access your report, you need to consider the accessibility of your content. This includes using correct heading styles, alt-text for images and where possible not using elements such as merged tables. Wider advice on how to create accessible content can be found here: Accessibility Toolkit – Digital Education (web)

Activity

Try it yourself

In this activity, you will practise presenting data to leadership using effective data storytelling techniques. Your goal is to make the data clear, compelling, and relevant by applying the principles discussed in the guide. Follow these instructions:

• Review the provided data report below.
• Consider how to visualize, explain, and lay out the data for maximum impact.

Answer the guiding questions to structure your presentation.

Whilst there are no fixed answers for reporting, as it’s highly situational. We have produced some questions below to get you thinking about potential challenges within the report.

Could you use these for any future reports you are writing?

• How will you visualize the participation and graduation rates over the years to make the trends clear and impactful?
• What labels and summaries are necessary to ensure the audience understands the data at a glance?
• How can you use plain language to explain the data while avoiding technical jargon?
• What personal stories or case studies can you include to make the data more relatable and compelling?
• How will you lay out the data logically to ensure a natural flow of information?
• What formatting techniques will you use to emphasise key points and create an emotional connection?
• What is the main point you are trying to emphasise and what action do you want them to take at the end of the report.

By answering these questions and engaging in the activity, you will enhance your ability to present data effectively to leadership, supporting decision-making and advocacy efforts.

The button below will help you download to the data report activity. Please select it to download a word document to your computer.

Step 3: Reflection

What have I discovered from this learning topic?

This step is designed to help you think about what you have learned and how this applies to your own practice and context. The activity will ask you some questions to help you with this reflection.

Activity

Reflect

Use the following questions to help you think about your own practice.

• Can you think of any regular reports which you present which could be developed from the information on this page?
• How has it changed your view of presenting data information?
• Are there any elements discussed on this page that you feel would be useful for the wider team?